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Situationism in the News

Below, we’ve posted titles and a brief quotation from some of the Situationist news items that we did not already devote individual posts to from late 2008. (They are listed in alphabetical order by source.)

“From sneers to full-blown smiles, our facial expressions are hardwired into our genes, suggests a new study. The researchers compared the facial expressions from more than 4,800 photographs of sighted and blind judo athletes at the 2004 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games. The analyses showed sighted and blind individuals modified their expressions of emotion in the same way in accordance with the social context.” Read more . . .

“In 1963, Stanley Milgram, an assistant professor of psychology at Yale, published his infamous experiment on obedience to authority. Its conclusion was that most ordinary people were willing to administer what they believed to be painful, even dangerous, electric shocks to innocent people if a man in a white lab coat told them to. For the first time in four decades, a researcher has repeated the Milgram experiment to find out whether, after all we have learned in the last 45 years, Americans are still as willing to inflict pain out of blind obedience.” Read more . . .

“It’s been only a decade or so since the world got hardwired, “Google” became a verb, and texting turned into a lifestyle. But if you’re still struggling to thumb a message, brace yourself: A whole new revolution in neuroscience is about to shake up our world.” Read more . . .

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To read the previous installment of “Situationism on the News,” click here.